Sump refugium design advice

Kmo253 · May 9, 2013

Hey guys, I'm planning in building a fish room behind my tank in my future home. Since I have the space I'll be using a 100 gallon trough as my sump and a 29 gallon aquarium inside as a refugium area. I would like you all to take a look at my drawing and let me know if you see any possible drawbacks on my design. Thanks in advance for taking a look!

29 gallon seperated into 3 compartments:
From left to right is Refugium (15x12), Skimmer (10x12) and Drain (4x12)

My idea is to use about 90 gallon rock in my display tank then use rubble in the drain section as well as putting some more rock in the 100 around the crates. Is there any problem with having too much rock? Also, I have calculated I'll have a water volume of about 175 gallons. Does this mean I have to have a bigger skimmer etc??

Kmo253 · May 9, 2013

Upside down! Crap sorry

Reefing Madness · May 10, 2013

Having problems with to much rock. no. But you'll have a hard time cleaning out the detritus once it collects under there. Design looks good.

Kmo253 · May 11, 2013

Thanks. I have switched that design slightly already to adjust some things. I decided to use an external skimmer that I can mount pretty much anywhere once I get everything setup. The tank inside the trough will be all refugium. I switched to a herbie overflow that I think I'll run into a 5 gallon bucket inside the trough to help keep a lot of detritus buildup in the bucket. Not sure if that would work, but makes sense to me in theory. Then off the return pump I'll feed the fuge and a couple of reactors in the future. I'll think I'll go ahead and build 3 reactor feeds for future upgrades.

Thanks for replying though!

Kmo253 · May 11, 2013

I have no freaking clue why they are uploaded upside down...

Reefing Madness · May 11, 2013

ROFL. Gotta flip the laptop here....=)
Yea, looking good there, I like the idea of and external skimmer, the internals take up to much room. Looks like you have it planned out pretty well. Need some real pics when you get it off the ground.

Kmo253 · May 12, 2013

If you are good at being patient I will have them for you. Best case scenario 6 months from now... I'll also try to show how I built my stand/canopy and the whole 9.

Reefing Madness · May 12, 2013

Ain't going anywhere. We can wait for the write up.

Kmo253 · May 13, 2013

Probably upside down again... Hope not. Here is a little updated version of the fish room design.

Reefing Madness · May 13, 2013

Very cool!

Kmo253 · May 13, 2013

Cleaning it up a bit more. Getting close to the final design. Just found information on a filtration zone "Benthinc Zone" and it was so interesting I want to account for it. If anyone has experience let me know.

Eric B · May 13, 2013

Looks good and as far as detritus from rocks you could always plumb something in with a small pump that once a day runs for a few minutes to keep it stirred up and not trapped in the live rock in the sump. Easier to plumb it now and where you want instead of trying to retrofit a year down the road! Good luck.

Kmo253 · May 15, 2013

Ok I was trying to figure out for the longest time a simple and efficient way to run my drain. I thought about trying to suspend something over the sump and bla bla bla I found people using plastic storage drawers. This is nearly perfect for my setup. I plan on getting a 32" tall unit with 2 smaller drawer sizes on top (approx. 13Lx12Dx4H). The top of the plastic drawers will have a hole drilled for the full siphon drain to drain into the first drawer. This will have 2-3 filter pads cut to size for the drawer. That drawer will also have holes drilled all over the bottom to create a shower affect over the 2nd drawer. I have yet to build one but I have the gist of it. The 2nd drawer will also have holes drilled into it and filled with bioballs. I hear bad things about them but I like the concept. If they happen to become nitrate collectors I could just pull out the drawer and they are gone. Also, that makes it very easy to switch out the filter pads having them placed in a drawer I can pull out. Thanks for anyone tagging along.

Kmo253 · May 15, 2013

The 29 gallon aquarium in the middle is acting as my refugium. I have done some research and I am also incorporating a "Benthic Zone" inside. I'm doing this by building compartments from egg crate. Basically I have a triplex refugium with the top section having algae on a 16 hour photo period and some live rock rubble on the other side. The middle section is meant to be open to promote different benthic inverts to attach to. There is also a 4" deep sand bed that will house a lot of creatures as well.